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Rock City

Royce da 5’9” f/ Eminem “Rock City” (2002)

Producer: Red Spyda

Album: Rock City (Version 2.0)

Label: Game Recordings, Koch Records

Royce Da 5’9”: “At that time I was signed with Game Records/Sony and there was a studio we used to work at in SoHo in New York. My man Red Spyda brought the beat to the studio. There were two rooms in the studio. One of the rooms was Stretch Armstrong’s room and the other room was the one we used to work in. So there used to be a lot of traffic through there, like a lot of different artists [coming through].

“I laid verses to it and I thought it would be dope to get Em to come up with a hook idea. I actually went in and laid a reference for the, ‘Chika chika, Rock City.’ I laid the reference for that, so I could have him do that. And then he came with the, ‘Come on and rock with me.’

“[Paul Rosenberg actually] came up with the melodic part. Em was doing a show in the Hamptons and I came out on his set with him. We were sitting in the car, it was my first time playing it for him. I played it for him when Paul was in the car and Paul just started doing it when the hook part came on. And Em was like, ‘Yo, that’s dope! I should do that.’ So that was kinda funny.”